FEMA restores deleted Puerto Rico stats after uproar

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has restored statistics on its website on Puerto Rico’s access to water and electricity following outrage over their removal, The Washington Post reports.

The agency posted the updated statistics on Puerto Rico’s recovery on Friday after drawing criticism for inexplicably removing them on Thursday morning. 

FEMA’s website now reports that 9.2 percent of Puerto Ricans have access to power, after Hurricane Maria wiped out the island’s entire electrical grid.

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More than half of Puerto Ricans now have access to clean drinking water through the territory’s sewer authority, at 55.5 percent. 

A FEMA spokesperson originally pointed the Post to the listing of the statistics on a web page run by the Puerto Rico governor’s office, which was entirely in Spanish, but did not explain why the statistics had been removed.

The Trump administration has faced criticism over its handling of the humanitarian crisis following Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico. The president visited the island on Tuesday and has said that the trip was “lovely.”

He added, “We only heard thank-yous from the people of Puerto Rico” on the response to his administration’s hurricane relief efforts.

Access to power and water has been at the center of the federal effort to aid in the island’s recovery, which is being led by FEMA, the Department of Defense and a number of military teams focused on delivering life-saving resources to remote parts of the island.